To Florida We Go!

We left Ohio on July 18th, 2013.

We had a whirlwind of three days since we had returned form our house hunting trip on Monday. I was so stressed and so tired during those three days. And still being in my first trimester, my all-day sickness was making me sick all the time. I was taking zofran twice a day to help with the nausea.

We left early in the morning on Friday, with thanks to Jason and Liz Roessner who drove us (and all of our stuff) to the airport while Colleen Eve watched their kids. 

I snapped two last shots of Hartsdale Drive.... Jordan would travel back a month later and really capture the house one last time but I wanted to take them myself.

And the for sale sign that was placed in our yard, the day prior. We were in such a rush and hurry, that I later realized I never gave a proper goodbye to my house that had sheltered us during so many wonderful life events. Jordan, who returned later, would do that for all of us.

We flew out of Columbus at 9:45am and the kids did pretty good on the 1hr 30mins flight to Atlanta. Once we hit Atlanta, our plane was slightly delayed. And then delayed again on the tarmac. And then we were told our 1hr 45mins flight would turn into a 3 hour flight due to storms in Fort Myers...!!! It was 12:30pm and the kids had been up since 6:30am and they were getting tiiiiiired.

Lily did really well and enjoyed playing, coloring, watching movies and snuggling with Thomas.

Robert, struggled but finally fell asleep in my arms for 30 minutes, which was better than nothing. He screamed for a solid 20 minutes when landing until we gave him Starbursts.. his ears were probably hurting at the point... poor boy!

We finally arrived, picked up our van, picked up our keys to the temporary house and made it to where we would stay for a couple of months until we could sell our Hartsdale house and buy a new house. 

The next days the kids went swimming and had a great time!

Our temporary house has it's own pool and we've been taking full advantage of it!

Here are the pictures of temporary house in Reflection Lakes community in Fort Myers.

The breakfast nook with a majorly annoying table to seat and eat at.

The kitchen

Hallway to the kids rooms

The kids and pool bathroom

Lily's room in all of it's floral flare...

Lily has her own walk in closet

Robert's room - which was the playroom until we moved it into our bedroom a week later

His crib we bought off of Craigslist the second day we were in Fort Myers

The living room

The disassembled formal dining room

The view upon entrance into the home

The view when looking into the backyard from the house

The entrance into our... 'wing'

The two walk in closets with the bathroom

My closet

Jordan's closet

The tub! The kids bath in it every night and I have too! The shower, is right behind the tub

Vanity for me

Vanity for Jordan 

Our bedroom which has really become the family room/playroom/bedroom. I cannot wait to have my room be MY room again. Kids only when I say there can be kids. I can't tell you how many times all my clothes, shower stuff, blankets and stuff have been strewn all about the place by little hands. 

The desk area - which is now the playroom

The laundry room

Our (new to us) van! A 2008 Honda Odyssey 

The entrance to the home with a cutie Robert following me

The front landscaping... all the vegetation is completely different from Ohio and the midwest...heck, the rest of the country, really.

Our temporary house on Reflection Lakes Drive!

Beautiful purple plant in our front yard

Another lovely red flowering plant 

Some aspects of daily life are the same... taking care of the kids, laundry, dinner, grocery shopping, etc. But on the other hand, everything is so different. We have frogs and lizards here instead of robin birds and squirrels. There is stucco and tile instead of siding and carpet. There are u turns and only main roads to drive on instead of turning lanes and thru roads. There are all kinds of palm trees instead of sycamore or oak trees. There are two seasons: rainy and dry instead of four seasons of winter, spring, summer and fall. There is Publix and Target instead of Kroger and Meijer (which I miss oh so badly!!). There are consignment shops instead of Goodwill (which I also miss so badly!). There are beaches and pools instead of city parks and playgrounds.

It's just so different. And we're still adjusting...